(this is a long one, sorry)
Peter's POV
My heart lurched in my chest as I slowly walked forwards in the dark alleyway, I couldn't have killed him. I crouched down and rolled the man onto his back, with shaking hands I pressed my fingers on his neck but I couldn't feel a pulse. My heart dropped. I killed him, he probably had a family and now they'd have to live without him. He wasn't an innocent person and I've stopped him from mugging people multiple times but I didn't mean to kill him.
I backed away from him and quickly swung away from the scene, I was supposed to be a hero, I wasn't supposed to kill people. I climbed in through the window and landed in my room, I pulled off my mask and got changed into some pyjamas. I looked at my suit and mask and anger and sadness welled up in me, tears threatened to spill from my eyes.
With great power comes great responsibility.
I failed my Uncle, I grabbed my suit and quickly stuffed it at the top of the closet and shoved a box in front of it. I closed my closet door and sunk to the ground running my hands through my sweaty hair.
"Peter? Are you back already?" May's voice called out.
I stood up and opened the door to reveal May standing there.
"Yeah, nothing was going on and I have a lot of homework to do," I lied faking a smile.
"Are you alright Hunny? Your eyes are a bit red," she asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, it's just allergies,"
She smiled and went down the hallway to her room, I closed my door and flopped onto my bed turning my light off. I couldn't be a superhero, I can't be trusted with my powers, from now on Spider-Man will be no more.
Friday after school was usually when I went to Stark Tower to do some work with Tony but I couldn't bring myself to go there. That place was for heroes and if I killed someone then I don't belong there. My phone started vibrating and I saw Tony's contact name appear, I debating answering it. If I didn't I knew he'd fly down and come talk to me in person.
"Hello?" I said into my phone.
"Hey Pete, are you coming today?" Tony asked, "Happy's running kind of late today so you might have to make your way over as spidey,"
"Uh, actually I have a group project that's really important, I'm going over to Ned's house for the whole weekend for the next 4 weeks so I won't be able to stop by," I explained.
"Oh, do you want to do another day instead?" he offered.
"No, no, no I don't want to bother you, Tony, I gotta go, bye!"
I hung up and sighed shoving my phone in my pocket, I was only partially lying about that. I did have a group project with Ned, a new girl named Hallie, Cindy, MJ and a guy called Chase, I was going over to Ned's house for 4 weeks to work on the project but I wasn't staying there for the whole weekend.
"You ready to go?" Ned asked.
I nodded and we walked with the others to Ned's place, his parents weren't home so for the first few hours we procrastinated and talked to each other while blasting music. The new girl Hallie was hilarious and I found myself talking to her a lot and I started to develop a little crush on her. We finally began working on our project and Hallie and I both worked on the science part since we were both really good at it while Ned and Cindy did the maths part, Chase worked on the graphs and experiments that we could run.
While we worked Chase still had music blasting and food littered the coffee table and the floor and we were all shouting and talking loudly, my voice was a bit sore from laughing and shouting but it was the most fun I've ever had in a while.
"My parents are coming home!" Ned announced.
I threw my books down on the couch and everyone immediately picked up all the rubbish and Ned vacuumed the floor and wiped down the coffee table. Chase stopped the music and we organised the coffee table so our books were in neat piles and sat down and did our work again when his parents came in.
"Sorry for the long wait for dinner but we got pizza!" announced Mrs Leeds.
We all cheered and thanked her and we moved into Ned's room so his parents could watch tv. We were sprawled on the carpet eating pizza and chatting while music played in the background but not as loud.
"I think we should watch a movie, we've been working a lot and we also have tomorrow to study," Cindy suggested.
We all cheered and Ned pulled out his movie collection, Hallie and I shifted through the movies and her hand accidentally touched mine. We both turned a shade of red but luckily it was dark in Ned's room so the others didn't notice.
"Oh my gosh, can we watch five feet apart?" Cindy asked waving around the DVD.
"I can't find a better movie so I don't mind," I replied.
"Yeah same," Hallie agreed.
Ned put the movie on his TV that was on the floor and we moved mattresses onto the floor and piled blankets and pillows onto it.
The movie started playing and we all grabbed a blanket and watched the movie, halfway through Hallie's fingers brushed mine and her hand rested against mine. I laced my fingers in hers and she smiled as we held hands.
By the end of the movie Hallie was crying and we were laughing about it, I dabbed away her tears with my sleeve and Hallie chose the next movie which was The Fault in our Stars.
"I guess we're on a trend of sad medical issue movies," I said.
"Oh come on you love them," Cindy teased.
Halfway through the movie, I felt a weight on my shoulder and when I turned to my right I saw Hallie sleeping on my shoulder. I smiled and continued to watch the movie, towards the end my eyes got heavy and sleep took over.
4 weeks later
Not being Spider-Man a good and bad decision, I missed being Spider-Man and I missed helping people every night but now that I wasn't Spider-Man I had more free time an focussed on my grades. Hallie and I were dating now and I have more friends than ever before, almost every weekend we went over to someone's house and had parties and sleepovers. This weekend we were going over to Betty's house and we were all going to be there, and by all of us, I meant my whole friend group which included, MJ, Ned, Hallie, Chase, Cindy, Abe and Jason.
We blasted music since her parents weren't home that weekend and we were about to settle down and watch a movie when my phone started ringing.
"Every shut up I need to answer this," I announced walked away.
I answered the call and brought it up to my ear.
"Hello?"
"Pass the weed!" Abe shouted jokingly.
"Babe come back to bed!" Hallie added.
"I'm so high right now!" Chase shouted.
"I'm on the verge of drunk!" Betty said.
"Peter come on finish drinking the rest of your beer!"
"Do you want to come outside and smoke?"
I couldn't help but laugh these and I almost forgot the person on the other end of my phone.
"Peter where the hell are you?" asked the voice.
I left the room and took a deep breath as I closed the living room door so I could get some silence.
"Sorry, who is this?" I asked.
"It's me, Tony Stark," he replied.
"Oh, hey Tony, sorry about my friends they were just joking, we're not drinking or smoking or anything like that," I said.
"I know, anyway, I was just calling to see if you wanted to come to the tower but I can tell that you're busy, I also need to talk to you about something Spider-Man related," he explained, "Can you make it after school one day this week?"
"Sorry Tony, I've got exams this week and I have to practice for that,"
"Oh okay, I'll talk to you later, don't do anything stupid," he warned.
I rolled my eyes even though he couldn't see me.
"Bye,"
I hung up and went back into the living room and stuck up my middle finger at everyone as they laughed. I sat down next to Hallie and she snuggled into me, the movie To all the boys I've loved before was playing.
"Let me guess, Betty chose this movie," I said.
"How did you know?" Betty replied sarcastically.
I chuckled and stared at the screen. I looked around at everyone, I couldn't believe that I had a normal life and a girlfriend. I didn't know what I was missing out on while I was Spider-Man...
2 months later.
Tony had said something briefly about going on a mission 2 months ago but I wasn't sure. But he hasn't talked to me since then so I assumed that he was still on the mission, after a lot of thinking I deleted his number from my phone and got a new one with a new number. May and I had also recently moved apartments so we could be closer to her work which I didn't mind, tonight we were going to Abe's mansion place and I looked forward to it.
That night, we were sitting in a circle on mattresses and the couch and we decided to play truth or dare.
"Peter, truth or dare," Chase challenged.
"Dare," I replied.
"I dare you to try and touch the ceiling and if you can't then I get to pie you in the face,"
I rolled my eyes and scoffed.
"Easy,"
I backed up and ran forward, I easily leapt up into the air but when my fingers brushed the ceiling I stuck to it. I panicked and tried to pull my fingers off but I couldn't.
"Whoa! Peter, how are you doing that?" Abe asked.
I put my foot onto the ceiling to try and pull my fingers off but that was a big mistake, my foot was stuck to the ceiling. I pushed against the ceiling and my fingers were released from it but now I was upside down with my feet sticking me to the ceiling. Below everyone was shouting things and they were all so amazed. I groaned I haven't been Spider-Man in three months so I haven't stuck to any surfaces which meant that I was extra sticky I guess.
"What the heck Peter! You're Spider-Man!" Chase shouted.
"Uh yeah, well no, I'm retired I guess, well not really retired but I quit," I replied.
"WHAT THE HECK!" almost everyone shouted.
"WHOA CALM DOWN!" I shouted, "You guys can't tell ANYONE about this otherwise people will come and kill you and the person you told,"
"Wait really? Who would come and kill us?" Betty asked.
"It's apart of my contract I guess but I think Tony was just kidding with me but I'm not really sure," I said.
"You know Tony Stark!" Cindy shouted.
"Are you apart of the Avengers?" Jason asked.
"Yes to both of those questions, but as I said before I quit being Spider-Man, don't ask why because I won't tell you," I said, "Ned can you pull me down?"
Ned grabbed my arm and pulled me down, I flipped and landed on the carpeted group and they all just stared at me.
"Wait, is that why you used to run out of the classroom and disappear all the time?" MJ asked.
"Yeah, and at Washington DC when I left I was Spider-Man," I explained.
They made me show them everything else that I could do and I explained to them how I got my spider bite. I sighed, I didn't want to mix my normal life and secret life but I guess I couldn't do anything about it now.
Tony's POV
When I returned from the mission in Wakanda I tried to call Peter multiple times but it never went through. I went to his apartment but some old lady answered the door, I asked her where the old owners of the apartment went but she didn't know. I tried to wait outside of his school but I could never see him, I didn't even know where his friend Ned was. I tried searching up stuff on Spider-Man but to my horror, there had been no recent activity in the last three months. I tried searching for his suit and the activity in his suit but he hacked it a while ago and disabled the baby monitor protocol.
I went to the school and got May's number from there since I didn't have it on my phone for some reason.
"Hello?" came May's voice.
"Hey May, it's me Tony Stark, I was wondering where Peter was, I just got back from a mission and Peter hasn't been answering any of my calls and I've been told that you moved," I replied.
"Oh hey Tony, Peter got a new phone and number so that's probably why, he's not here at the moment, he goes out to parties most weekends so I think he's at Chase's mansion house thing," she replied.
"Okay, thanks May,"
I hung up and asked FRIDAY to give me Chase's address, I flew there and I came in view of his mansion, there were no cars in the garage so his parents must not be home. A light was on on the second story and I zoomed in through the window, I could see about 7 or 8 people sitting in the living room laughing.
"FRIDAY can you activate enhanced hearing protocol?" I asked.
"Sure thing boss," she replied.
Suddenly, I could hear what they were saying in the room and they were playing truth or dare.
"Peter, truth or dare," someone asked.
"Truth," he replied.
"Why did you quit being Spider-Man?" they asked.
I frowned, first of all, how did these people know about him being Spider-Man and second of all, Peter quit being Spider-Man? Is that the reason there had been no Spider-Man reports in the last three months?
"I did something by accident, I don't even know how it happened really but I was trying to stop a mugging and I kicked a guy in the stomach, he fell back and hit his head on the edge on a sharp box, it was right on his temple so he died, after that I couldn't be Spider-Man again, the guilt was just too much," he explained.
"But that wasn't your fault, that guy has probably mugged plenty of people so he would've died if he was handed over to the police anyway," someone else said.
Peter shrugged and someone cleared their throat.
"Hallie truth or dare," someone challenged.
"Dare," the girl replied.
"I dare you to make out with your boyfriend," they sniggered.
"What kind of a dare is that? We do that almost every day anyway," she replied.
The girl stood up and Peter did as well. They moved closer and their lips met, different emotions flooded through me. Peter had a girlfriend? How much had happened since I've been gone? Is that why Peter hasn't come to the tower in ages?
I flew back to Stark Tower and called May, she told me a day that he would not be busy and I arranged for Happy to pick Peter up from school and I would be in the backseat.
The next day, I sat in the back seat and we waited out the front of the school for Peter, luckily the windows were tinted so no one could see me. I saw Peter walk out with his friend Ned and I saw Ned point the car out to him, I saw Peter freeze but Happy rolled the window down.
"C 'mon Peter!" he called.
Peter said goodbye to his friend and began walking over uncertainly.
"Hey Happy, what are you doing here?" Peter asked.
"I'm picking you up, May said you're free, get in the back," Happy replied.
Peter sighed but got into the backseat and froze when he saw me.
"H-hey Tony, how w-was your mission?" he asked.
"It was good, but we need to talk," I said.
I pressed the screen divider button and it came between the backseat and front seat so Happy couldn't hear us. Peter gulped and I rubbed my eyes.
"I know about what happened and why you haven't been Spider-Manning recently," I began, "But, you're friends are right, that wasn't your fault Peter, people do die and you won't save everyone,"
"I know but this time I killed him, he probably has a family and they will never know that their father was killed by me!" Peter shouted.
"You didn't kill him, Peter, you hear me? You did not kill him, now, when we get back to the tower you're putting on your suit and swinging around for a bit," I told him.
"I-I don't have my suit with me," he replied.
"Don't worry I have multiple at the tower," I said.
We were on the edge of the roof on top of Stark Tower and I was in my Iron Man suit with Peter was in his Spider-Man suit and fiddling with his web-shooters.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I haven't been swinging around in so long so heights are kind of a new thing again," he gulped.
"Don't worry Pete, I don't expect you to do it for the first time, I'm going to catch you, I promise, you just need to trust me," I replied.
He nodded and I flew off the edge, he nodded and then leapt off the building, I flew underneath him ready to catch him but he shot a web onto the nearest building and swung upwards. He did a few backflips before falling and catching himself with another web.
"You good Pete?" I asked.
"Yeah! I forgot how amazing this is!" he shouted back.
I smiled and shook my head.
"Hey, Tony! There's a robbery on 21st street, I'll race you there!"
I sighed and shook my head again smiling, this kid was so pure-hearted that he's almost too good for this world.
Sorry for the long one but I didn't really feel like splitting this into 2 parts.
<3